Screen Talk, episode 182: Who will spend money on big movies in Park City this year — and which ones will get left out in the cold?

The Sundance Film Festival kicks off the year with a whole bunch of questions about the marketplace for independent films. This year, there are all-new uncertainties about the biggest buyers and their motives in an environment where stories about late-night negotiations often overwhelm those about the movies themselves. So what happens to the smaller films when everyone’s so focused on the price tag? And which movies are really worthy of discussion, whether or not they find distribution in Park City?

Last year, the biggest buyers were Amazon (“The Big Sick”) and Netflix (“Mudbound”). But with reports that Amazon may scale back on independent film and growing concerns about Netflix’s disinterest in the theatrical business, what are the most viable options for Sundance films? That’s one of the burning questions pondered by Eric Kohn and Anne Thompson in this week’s episode of Screen Talk, as co-hosts Eric Kohn and Anne Thompson also contemplate the movies they’re excited to see and why they hope to be surprised.

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